Parenting Advices

Want to make your home sparkle the old-fashioned way? All you need is five simple ingredients.

Baking soda

• For sparkling silver, line a porcelain sink with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Load it with silver you intent to polish, making certain that every item touches the foil liner. Cover with boiling water and add a cup of baking soda. The tarnish will jump from the silver to the foil in almost no time. For any remaining traces of heavy tarnish, make a paste of water and baking soda and polish the surface until it shines.
• Make a tile cleanser by mixing two cups of baking soda with a half cup of lukewarm water. Brush the mixture into the grout and scrub, scrub, scrub.
• Sprinkle baking soda onto your upholstered couch to deodorize it. Let it stand for an hour, then vacuum.

Lemon

• Mix two parts olive oil with one part lemon juice to create furniture polish. Just a few drops on a soft cloth will make your wooden furniture shine. Buff the surface with a dry cloth to remove any excess oil. Store your polish in a glass jar.
• Remove ink stains on cloth by placing lemon juice directly onto the spot. Allow it to sit overnight before laundering as usual. Repeat if necessary.
• Take rust off household tools and chrome by using salt and one tablespoon of lemon juice. Make a paste and rub onto rusty area with a dry cloth.
• Brighten white fabrics by soaking them in a pot of boiling water with a sliced lemon.

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Knowing what skin problems might await your child outdoors can help you prevent them.

Kids are prone to particular skin problems during summer because of the hot humid climate. For instance, fungal growth is fostered in sweaty areas because it thrives in moist conditions. Children’s skin can also be quite sensitive to heat and overheating often aggravates itching in already affected areas.

Top Summer Skin Problems for Kids

Millaria. More commonly known as prickly, it is caused by the blocking of the flow of sweat from the sweat glands to the skin’s surface. “The sweat will look for another way to get out so it escapes into the skin.

Prickly heat manifests as tiny pink to red spots that can be intensely itchy and painful. In worse cases, the spots may sometimes appear as if they are infected with pus. The spots or bumps often show up on covered parts of the skin, especially where there is friction from clothing. The forehead, body folds, the upper back and chest, trunk, abdomen, and the arms are also common sites.

Mild cases may respond to dusting powders like cornstarch and talcum after bath. For moderate to severe cases, however, it’s best to bring your child to the dermatologist or pediatrician as mild topical and oral steroids may be prescribed.

Placing your child in a cool environment, preferably an airconditioned room will help ease prickly as well as frequent cool baths and light cotton clothing.

Intertigo. Also described as superficial inflammatory dermatitis, it’s an intensely red, macerated, glistening rash with scaling on the edges. This is commonly found among overweight or obese children and affected sites are usually creases of the neck, and other skin folds. Friction — the rubbing of skin against skin plus heat and moisture — result in redness that eventually leaves it macerated. Secondary infection by bacteria or fungi then occurs and patient may experience a burning, itchy sensation.

It’s recommended to bring your child immediately to the dermatologist who may prescribe antihistamines; anti-fungal therapy may also be prescribed.

At home, apply a saline compress to help dry affected areas. The procedure involves placing a gauze on top of the rash then slowly applying saline solution (available in drug stores) using a proper gauze, for 10 to 15 minutes three times a day.

Help prevent intertrigo by keeping skin folds clean and as dry as possible. Applying dusting powders in th folds after a bath will lessen friction in the skin and provide a cooling sensation to the patient. Dress your child in loose and soft clothing and underwear. For obese children, weight loss will help reduce the size of fat folds.

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Bust the hidden allergies in your home to keep your place — and your kids — healthy.

Cecile goes into a room and starts to sneeze and itch all over. Usually immune from allergies, she now finds herself affected by the unusually large amount of dust around her.

Although the windows are closed, dust still penetrates through the window sill and finds its way into the home. Our home is a hotbed for allergens — dust, dust mites and mold are only some of the common causes of allergy. Enjoy the summer months by reducing the amount of allergens in the home.

Keep your home and bedroom a safe refuge by making it a healthy place to be in. Here are some tips from the 3M Handy Book of Health & Personal Care (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2005) to keep it that way:

• Wash beddings in hot water every week.
• Vacuum carpeted rooms regularly.
• Wash curtains often.
• Remove items that collect dust; if it must be in the room, dust them regularly.
• Airconditioners control room temperature and reduce humidity, so clean airconditioner filters regularly to prevent molds.
• Remove pet hair from furniture if your pets are in the house.
• Bathe pets regularly.
• Expose mattresses under the sun.
• Shampoo or expose rugs to sunlight and beat them to remove the dirt.

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Cockroaches and mosquitoes can cause asthma, dengue and a host of other diseases. But do the pesticides that kill them pose equal, sometimes greater danger to our kid’s health? If used incorrectly, pesticides can be very harmful when ingested or inhaled, or absorbed by the skin. While all products carry warning labels, most consumers ignore them. Don’t.

Children are at a greater risk. Their organs are still developing. These pesticides can affect their ability to absorb nutrient. Their bodies may also have a hard time expelling the harmful chemicals, which stay in their systems where they can cause long-term and even permanent damage to the nervous system and other organs.

Pregnant women should also avoid pesticide exposure because of its effect on their unborn child’s neuromuscular system. However, there have been very few studies on how great the effect can be. Research has been done on animals, which developed skeletal abnormalities and low birth weight after excessive exposure.

The chemistry of a pest killer

There are chemical pesticides (made of synthetic materials) and biopesticides (made of natural materials as animals, plants and bacteria).

Chemical pesticides include organophosphates and carbamates, which kill pests by affecting their nervous system, and pyrethroids.

On the other hand, biopesticides use naturally occurring substances. For example, microbial biopesticides use bacteria or virus, to attack the pest or its eggs. Others harvest substances (like sex pheromones that interfere with matting).

Both can affect a person’s health, but in varying degrees. You also have to consider how you were exposed to the pesticide, how much, and your own level of sensitivity. For example,  swallowing pesticide can be very toxic and potentially fatal, since the chemicals can harm the stomach and intestinal lining.

The invisible poisons

Pesticides are useful, yes, but you have to be careful — and take far greater precautions than just asking your kids to leave the room when you spray. Ten minutes later, when they walk in, they can ingest the chemicals through a number of ways.

Playing on the floor. Even unscented sprays will leave a microscopic “carpet” of pesticide droplets on the floor, where they’ll be absorbed by your toddler’s skin.

Inhaling the chemicals. Chewing on a toy. You’d never let your toddler chew on a bottle of insecticide, but they’re at equal risk if you leave their teether on the table when you spray.

Touching an infected surface, then rubbing the eyes. Some pesticides can even penetrate the eyes directly (that’s why they get watery). They may also accidentally eat improperly stored pesticides and cleansing agents like roach sprays and insect sprays. Even swimming can put them at risk, if the water contains strong chemicals.

Signs of  pesticide poisoning:

Symptoms include nausea, mild dizziness, and redness of the eyes or skin. Severe reactions include respiratory distress (difficulty in breathing, wheezing), convulsions, and change in consciousness. Here’s what to do:

• If it was due to contact with the skin and eyes: Remove contaminated clothes Wash the affected area with clean running water for 15 minutes.
• If it was inhaled: Loosen tight-fitting clothes. Bring him near a window or any area where he can get a fresh air. If he has convulsions, has trouble breathing, or is turning blue, give artificial respiration and rush to the nearest medical center as possible.
• If it was swallowed: Don’t make the person vomit. Some poisons may cause even greater injury when they are vomited. Bring the person to the emergency room right away.

How to avoid exposure to pesticides:

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Congratulations! You’ve decided to do it all by yourself! Here are a few pointers from others who have done it before you:

On Child Care

As always keep children, especially preschoolers, where you can see or hear them. If you have an infant, make sure you have him safe in his crib, far from your preschooler’s reach.

Keep your kids busy while you take your bath or are cooking. Drawing, reading, coloring books or a video can do the trick.

On Cleaning

Don’t always expect the house to be spic and span. The goal is a semblance of neatness and cleanliness. Train the kids to fix their beds, pick up their toys, and pack away their own things.

If you have a big house, consider getting someone — perhaps one of your mom’s helpers on loan — to come in once a week to do a thorough cleaning.

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